S7, Ep 82: The Art of Stealth: Catching Big Smallmouth in Low Water Conditions with Matt Reilly

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly. We're back with another Southwest Virginia fishing report with Matt Reilly. Matt, how are you, man?

I'm doing pretty good, how are you?

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And you know, I think we are pretty close to the, to officially being in fall and not have any more hot weather here in the mid Atlantic.

Yeah, I would say we definitely want hot water, but we are kind of petering out of what, you know, you might call a false fall or India summer or I don't know what the official term is for it, but it's been cool. And we've got a bunch of, you know, 80, 85 degree highs and 5060 degree overnights in the next couple of weeks coming.Not a lot of rain and low clear rivers. So, you know, summer at least on the river is going to cling on for a little while longer.

Yeah. And so, you know, when you get into that low clear zone, you know, what do you do on the smallmouth front to get more fish in the boat?

Well, I, to tell you the truth, I'm not necessarily concerned with more fish in the boat. I'm particularly this time of year.I mean, pre spawn and late summer, I'm really, and I mean, I guess always looking for big fish and sometimes that comes at the expense of numbers.But anytime you're dealing with, with low, clear water, especially real close, low and clear water, I mean, you're going to have spooky fish and you've got to have, you've got to have a game plan. You know, you've got to think about water that you can, you know, approach fish well in.You know, sometimes you have real bony water that you can barely get the boat through and you're gonna, you know, be making a bunch of commotion and stuff, just, just traversing that water. And sometimes the best move is just to eliminate that focus on, on places that you can approach stealthily.And you know, when the water gets really low and clear, it moves a lot slower too.So if you're fishing nine miles a river, seven and a half miles of river, you know, and you're, you're really being stealthy and moving slowly and, and putting your best foot forward in the right places, that can make for a really long day.So, you know, you've got to, you've got to have a, an idea of where your best spots are going to be to achieve the goal at hand and eliminate some and you know, really spend your time where you need to so does pay to have a game plan.

Yeah.And I would imagine too, on the stealthy front, you know, in low water, it also helps to probably be able to cast a fair distance without rocking the boat, right?

Absolutely. Yeah.I mean, that's a, that's a skill that can be very noticeable when somebody doesn't have it, you know, shifting weight really heavily from, from your, you know, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot is your false casting. If you're on flat, clear, slow, shallow water.I mean, this, it's a, it's a dead giveaway and, and you're going to have to, you know, it's a, it's a big hurdle to overcome, especially when you're talking about big, wise, spooky fish. It's something that, that I try to do when I'm fishing. Doesn't matter, you know, what I'm fishing for.If you can, if you can, you know, not shift weight as, as much as possible and, and keep that weight and, and pressure waves to a minimum, it's always, it's always helpful. And then, you know, just the really technical aspects of, of, you know, bug fishing and smallmouth behavior come into play too.I mean, one of the things that I've been drilling people with the last couple of weeks is just this idea of sort of a small mouse awareness of items that hit the water as it relates to their reactive distance and willingness to go inspect and eat that fly. You know, there's days where we're talking specifically about bug fishing. There's, there's days where the fish are extremely buggy.You slap the bug down and they might travel 20ft to come eat it. And then there's days where they're very not buggy or, or, you know, they're not willing to travel like that.But that bug might still be your best bet in terms of putting a big fish in the boat.And bugs have a bad habit of, you know, just trying to get as many casts in as possible, just splatting the bug, picking it up, splatting it down again. And when it's done well, bug fishing is a very deliberate exercise.You know, you're, you're trying to be stealthy, trying to imitate a bug that's hitting the water dead or, you know, helpless and allowing a fish to take its time to come over, take advantage of that easy to catch meal.And there's, if you're fishing too quickly or you're making too much commotion, you're, you're going to find yourself with some, some spooked Fish and some long periods without fishing the boat.So a couple of things that I always try to get people to do is one, you know, do not let your bug hit the water or your line hit the water unless it's in the spot that you have previously selected that you want the bug to hit down in that you're prepared to fish. Because anytime you flat a bug down and pick it up, any fish that's aware of that fly is now usually uncatchable.You know, so in the same vein, making sure you pick up quietly and recast, you know, well away from where you picked that fly up in a new, you know, very intentional spot is also important. And, you know, there are lots of days where a fish's zone of awareness sort of is. Is wider than their reactive distance.And if that fly lands kind of inside of the awareness zone, outside of the reactive distance, then, you know, you're gonna. You're not gonna be able to catch that fish.You're gonna have to fish to a new fish, because if you pick that fly up, they see it exit, they're spooked, and, you know, if you splat it down closer to that fish, you know, you don't have a shot. So it's. It should be a really deliberate process and just keeping stealth foremost in your mind is.It's one of those things that, you know, the results are sort of hard to.Sort of hard to quantify the benefits there because, I don't know, a lot of folks just, I guess, don't really understand what's happening when you're fishing poorly. You know, you could still be catching fish, but you're. You're not getting as much as you can out of the situation. And so all.All of that stuff just becomes more and more important, the, the more technical the conditions become.

Got it. And so do you ever downsize the bug or maybe go from cork to foam to kind of deal with the stealth issue?

You know, I, I have played with that, and I. I'll say I'm generally not a. Not a big fan of. Of foam. I just don't feel like I can pull a fish from quite as far with it.And, you know, when the water's really low and clear, some days, you know, when it's. When it's real sunny and the fish are fairly predictable in their location and you can put a fly right near a fish, you know, I think it.I think it can work well.But days where they're potentially scattered and you're going to have to, you know, move A fish from further away, you know, to stand a chance at catching net numbers of fish or you know, put another way, you know, if, if their reactive distance is, is going to be smaller, narrower because you're fishing a fly that they're not going to move quite as far too or they're not going to be aware of it from as far away. It, it's, it's just important to have a, a bigger splat, bigger presence.I do fish, you know, I, I carry a bunch of different sizes and, and sort of weights of intensities of, of cork just because yes, there are times when you do want a lighter splat but you know, I've just never been a big fan of foam and I've, I've, I've kind of tried to a b test those a little bit and my, my general takeaway is just that I have not caught nearly as many or I tend to catch bigger fish with, with denser bugs than with, with lighter bugs.

Got it. And you know folks, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email me or DM me on social media, whatever's easiest for you.And if you, we use your question, I'll send you some articulate fly swag.And when you're in a drawing for some cool stuff for Matt at the end of the season and Matt, like we always do, you want to let folks know, you know, what you're booking, how to reach out and all that kind of good stuff.

Yeah man, we are pretty much booked. I mean no smallmouth dates left for the sort of regulation season here.We'll be doing some small mouth the winter but the main focus is always going to be muskies and started booking a fair number of those dates. I just kind of opened that up a week or so ago and yeah, let me know if you're interested in that.We've got plenty of days left but it won't be the case for long I don't think. And yeah, not really focusing on booking anything into the spring, summer yet.But you know, like I always say, I mean I've, most of everybody I fish with is, is a repeat client and tend to rebook dates similar times a year every year. And so if you're, if you're interested in doing something that I do, I would, I would at least you know, just kind of start a conversation.We'll, we'll, we'll try to get it done because I can't always promise I'm going to have a plethora of dates left in, you know, a couple months before, so always feel comfortable reaching out. And all of my contact information's on my website, which is mattreillyflyfishing.com. And, yeah, I'll stop talking now.

It's all good. Well, listen, folks, as I always say, yo, it's yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.

Thanks, Marvin.